Mobile Development Platform Comparison Matrix

Mobile Development Platform Comparison Matrix

 

ToolsLanguage(s)CostDevicesDocumentationDeveloper SupportApp Delivery MechanismCarriersTarget Audience
Android

• Android SDK
• Android Development Tools (ADT) plugin on Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5

• Java for native apps
• Android Native Development Kit (NDK) for apps requiring C/C++ libraries

Free, open source; no upfront fees

Smartphones and PDAs from many different manufacturers, including HTC, LG, Motorola and Samsung

SDK provides extensive developer documentation

Complete documentation online (with videos, official Android developer blog and an active Android development community)

• Google Android Market
• Third-party app markets and publication channels

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Consumers for personal use

BlackBerry

• BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE)
• BlackBerry Java Plugin on Eclipse 3.5
• BlackBerry Theme Studio; BlackBerry device simulators

• Java ME + rich set of custom APIs
• Widgets and Web apps (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript)

• Free access to SDK and simulators
• $20 to sign an app
• $200 account fee for every 10 apps on BlackBerry App World
• BlackBerry Alliance Program for ISVs ranging from $2000 to $5000

BlackBerry smartphones in a variety of models

• Javadocs
• BlackBerry Knowledge Base

• RIM community developer forums
• Support for registered RIM ISVs

• Cable-loaded
• Browser
• Java Application Descriptor (JAD) files
• .COD files
• Content aggregators
• BlackBerry App World
• Branded carrier app stores

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Primarily business users

iPhone

• iPhone SDK
• Ansca Corona
• Appcelerator Titanium Mobile
• Nitobi PhoneGap
• Rhomobile Rhodes
• iUI
• DragonFireSDK
• Unity

• Objective-C
• HTML, CSS and JavaScript

• $99 per year for Apple iPhone Developer Program
• Most developer tools are free, open source, others vary from $99 to $400 per year

• iPhone 3G
• iPhone 4

Apple Developer Program, which is free to join and includes access to the iPhone SDK, iPhone Reference Library and documentation

• Apple Developer Community
• Code-level technical support from Apple for iPhone Developer Program members

• Safari web browser
• Apple’s App Store
• iTunes

• US: AT&T
• UK: O2, Orange, Vodafone and T-Mobile
• Germany and Netherlands: T-Mobile
• Canada: Rogers, Telus and Bell Mobility

• Primarily early adopters, young adults
• Enterprise users have been reluctant to jump on board.

Windows Mobile 6.5

Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition or better, but not Visual Studio 2010

Native C++ or supported .NET languages C# or Visual Basic .NET

• Free SDK
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional – $1200
• Application marketplace subscription – $99/year

Smartphones and PDAs from many different manufacturers, including HTC, LG and Samsung

• Microsoft Developer Network and related sites
• Large amount of community content

• Microsoft Professional support
• Free community support

• Through a memory card, network or an ActiveSync connection
• Microsoft Windows Marketplace for Mobile

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Business and average consumers

Windows Phone 7

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone
• Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone

• .NET; C# only
• Silverlight
• XNA

• Prices not finalized yet
• Free SDK, most probably free development tool
• Windows Marketplace for Mobile developer subscription – $99/year

No availability until Q4 2010

Electronic on MSDN and on the SDK

• Microsoft developer support
• Broad community support

Via Windows Marketplace for Mobile

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Business and average consumers

Palm WebOS

• Palm webOS SDK
• The Mojo framework
• Palm Developer Tools (PDT)

Applications typically written in JavaScript, HTML, AJAX, and other common Web technologies, as well as in C and C++

For a limited time (as of 7/22/2010), HP waiving $99 annual fee for developer account

• Palm Pre, Palm Pixi, Palm Plus
• HP has promised to leverage webOS platform on multiple products, including smartphones, HP slate tablets, and printers.

Plenty of documentation at developer.palm.com

Plenty of support and information at developer.palm.com

The Palm App Store

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Business and consumer users

Symbian

• Application development kit (ADT)
• An application software development kit (SDK)
• Nokia Qt SDK

• Native language is C++
• Other languages include: Python, Java ME, Flash Lite, Ruby, .NET, Web Runtime, Widgets, VisualBasic and Standard C/C.

A few hundred dollars

• Nearly all devices using Symbian are Nokia phones.
• A few Sony Ericsson phones and one from Arima.

SDKs contain documentation, the header files and library files required to build Symbian OS software, and a Windows-based emulator (“WINS”)

Good support through the Symbian Foundation

Nokia’s apps store, Ovi Store

• All major U.S. wireless carriers
• Most major global carriers

Business and consumer users

 

ToolsFeaturesMax Size of DBLanguages SupportedConnection ProtocolsFootprintOperating Systems SupportedSynchronization/Integration with BackendDeployment OptionsSecurityDocumentation/Developer SupportCost
SQL Server Compact

• Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
• Microsoft Visual Studio

• Can be deployed on smart devices and computers
• SQL Server Compact Edition Tools for Visual Studio 2005 SP1
• SQL Server Compact Edition Developer SDK
• SQL Server Compact Edition Server Tools
• |DataDirectory| substitution string support

4G

T-SQL

• ADO.NET
• ODBC
• OLE DB
• LINQ

• <2MB disk space
• 5MB memory

• Windows Embedded
• Windows Mobile
• Windows Desktop
• Windows Server

• Remote Data Access (RDA)
• Merge replication
• Requires a Client Access License (CAL) to the host SQL Server

• ClickOnce
• Microsoft Installer Package (MSI)
• Xcopy

• Data transfer – 128-bit data encryption
• Authentication and authorization for RDA handled by Internet Information Services (IIS)
• Encryption via Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• DB file secured using RSA 128-bit data file encryption and can be password protected

• Microsoft Support
• Books Online
• Blogs
• Videos
• Community Forums
• Newsgroups

Free

Oracle Database Lite

• Mobile database offering consists of Database Lite Client and middle tier, Oracle Database Lite Mobile Server
• User interface into Mobile Server is Mobile Manager
• Mobile Database Workench (MDW)
• Mobile Development Kit (MDK)
• Packaging Wizard

• Synchronization support for SQLite databases
• Windows Mobile 5 and 6/CE Standard SDK 5.0 support
• Android and Blackberry device support
• JDK 1.5 compatibility
• C++/.Net stored procedures support
• Troubleshooting with Mobile Server Repository Diagnostic Tool (MSRDT)
• Oracle RAC support

• 4GB of relational data
• 16TB of BLOB data

• SQL-92
• Java
• C++
• .NET stored procedures and triggers

• ODBC
• JDBC
• ADO.NET

Starting around 1MB

• Windows (2003, XP, Vista)
• Windows Mobile (5, 6)
• Linux (RedHat)
• Linux Embedded
• Symbian (7, 8, 9)
• Mobile Server is deployable on Windows, Linux, Sun SPARC, HP-UX and IBM AIX

• Mobile Server provides bi-directional data synchronization to an enterprise instance of an Oracle database.
• Asynchronous and synchronous incremental data synchronization between thousands of mobile users and the Oracle Database recovers from network failures during synchronization
• File-based synchronization in absense of network connectivity
• Synchronization support has been extended to include SQLite databases with version 10.3 of Database Lite

• Packaging Wizard
• Mobile Server
• Mobile Server integration with the WebLogic Server 11g and Oracle Application Server (OAS)

• FIPS-140 compliance
• SSL
• 128-bit AES encryption

• Code samples, and tutorials provided with MDK
• Documentation, support and community forums

• $60 per user
• Mobile Server – $23,000 per processor

DB2 Everyplace (Enterprise Edition)

• Mobile Devices Administration Center
• XML Scripting Tool

• Optimized for SAP
• Transaction support
• Failure recovery
• Allows for indexing for performance tuning
• Stored procedures only supported as remote calls via the Remote Query and Stored Procedure Adapter

See DB2 Everyplace limits for a list of DB2 limits

• C/C++
• Java
• .NET
• VB
• Subset of standard SQL

• DB2 Call Level Interface (CLI)
• ODBC
• JDBC
• ADO.NET

350KB

• Windows (2000, 2003, XP, Vista, CE)
• Linux
• Linux Embedded
• Symbian
• QNX
• Palm OS

• DB2 Everyplace Sync Server
• DB2 Everyplace Sync Client:
– secure, bi-directional synchronizing
– Runs on Windows (32-bit), Linux (32-bit), Solaris (64-bit), and AIX (64-bit)
• servlet is provided for simple, low-volume scenarios

WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment

• Local data encryption provided by plugins based on individual platforms
• DSYEncrypt utility encrypts passwords

• SDK, including tutorials and code samples
• IBM website – documentaton, support, community forums

$166 per user; includes license, software subscription and 12 months of support

DB2 Everyplace (Database Edition)

• Mobile Devices Administration Center
• XML Scripting Tool

 

See DB2 Everyplace limits for a list of DB2 limits

• C/C++
• Java
• .NET
• VB
• Subset of standard SQL

 

350KB

• Windows (2000, 2003, XP, Vista, CE)
• Linux
• Linux Embedded
• Symbian
• QNX
• Palm OS

Local data storage

 

• Local data encryption provided by plugins based on individual platforms
• DSYEncrypt utility encrypts passwords

• SDK, including tutorials and code samples
• IBM website – documentaton, support, community forums

$72.50 per user

SQL Anywhere

• Visual Studio
• Eclipse
• PowerBuilder

• 20,000 transactions per minute
• Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) agent
• UltraLiteJ for use on BlackBerry devices and with J2SE
• v.12: Support for spatial data, language extensions, performance improvements, support for iPhone, and more

Hundreds of GB of data

• C#
• VB.NET
• C/C++
• ASP
• XML
• Java
• Special drivers for PERL and PHP

• ODBC
• JDBC
• ADO.NET
• OLE DB
• Open Client

• 10MB hard disk
• 4MB of memory
• UltraLite version: 75KB

• Windows
• Windows Mobile
• Linux
• Linux Embedded
• Mac OSX on Intel
• Sun SolarisIBM AIX
• HP-UX
• MobiLink: Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX

Bi-directional replication is accomplished using MobiLink

Deployment Wizard

Optional purchases: RSA and ECC encryption protocols

• Documentation
• Community forums
• Webcasts

Dependent on what you need to do with it, who will be using it, how many will be using it, and what platform you are targeting

SQL Lite

• TCL (Tool Command Language)
• C/C++ interface to SQLite
• Management Tools
• Converter Tools
• SQLite Wrappers
• SQLite Reporting

• Zero-Configuration
• Serverless
• Single Database File
• Stable Cross-Platform Database file

1 terabyte

SQL-92

N/A

<275K

Cross-platform, 32-bit and 64-bit systems

N/A

 

Support for reading and writing encrypted databases using these algorithms: RC4, AES-128 in OFB mode, AES-128 in CCM mode, and AES-256 in OFB mode

• Documentation
• Wiki
• Sample code
• Upgrade guidance
• API references

Public domain

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